Burnpur (West Bengal): Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by his side, on Sunday made a strong pitch for federalism and declared that Delhi alone would not rule India. He said the Centre and the state governments jointly made a team that he described as Team India.
“As soon as we came to power, we brought in a change in Centre-state relations. We encouraged cooperative federalism because we decided that Delhi will not rule the country alone. India won’t change without a Team India,” he said.
Elaborating on his concept of Team India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “The Prime Minister and chief ministers are one team that will take India ahead. The nation is bigger than any party." He described the Union government and 29 state governments as the 30 pillars of "Team India" which would take India forward.
Mr Modi was speaking after inaugurating the Indian Iron and Steel Company’s (IISCO’s) refurbished steel plant at Burnpur, West Bengal, on Sunday.
The plant has been modernised at a cost of Rs 16,000 crore and the production capacity will increase from 0.85 mtpa to 2.9 mtpa. The modernised steel plant will have the largest blast furnace.
It was the CM who set the ball rolling by stressing the need for total coordination and cooperation between the Centre and the states.
"In this federal structure, if we will work together then only will the nation progress," she said in her brief speech. On Saturday Ms Banerjee shared a stage for the first time with Prime Minister Modi in Kolkata when he inaugurated insurance and pension schemes. On Sunday she drove from Kolkata to Burnpur to share the stage with the PM again.
Picking up the thread from Ms Banerjee’s "unity is our strength" mantra, Mr Modi said he agreed with her that the nation could progress only with Centre-states collaboration and cooperation.
To buttress his point Mr Modi referred to the recent passage of the Land Boundary Agreement in both Houses of Parliament. "The contentious border dispute had remained unresolved between India and Bangladesh for 41 years.
Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and Delhi joined hands and, through the efforts of Team India, for the first time a bill was passed in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha with total consensus among all political parties," he said, adding that not a vote was cast against the bill.
To illustrate that the states have been given a much larger share of revenue during the one year his government has been in power at the Centre, Mr Modi said: "Earlier the states would get only 35 to 40 per cent of national revenue and the Centre 60 to 65 per cent. But now the states are getting 62 per cent and 38 per cent is going to the exchequer at the Centre."
Mr Modi said that in the past one year since he became PM the stock of India has risen considerably in the eyes of the international community. "One year ago they (the world) had virtually written off India, saying India had collapsed. But now they are saying in unison that India is a power to reckon with.
All rating agencies, like IMF, World Bank and Moody’s, have acknowledged that India is fast emerging as the fastest-growing economy," he said.
